Tom Ruegger (born April 4th, 1956, in Metuchen, New Jersey) is an American animation writer, producer, and director. He was once an executive producer/creative director for
Warner Bros. Animation. In the 1980s he worked for
Hanna-Barbera, writing and producing various shows—most notably
Yogi's Treasure Hunt,
The Snorks on
NBC, the short lived
The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo on
ABC all in 1985,
Pound Puppies in 1986 on ABC, the whole
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo series from 1979 until August 1985 on ABC and
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in 1988 on ABC. But he is most famous as a producer, writer, show-runner and cartoon-creator for
Warner Bros Animation from 1989-2001, working alongside
Jean MacCurdy and
Steven Spielberg, where his creations included
Tiny Toon Adventures on FOX (along with
Sherri Stoner and
Paul Dini),
Animaniacs,
Pinky and the Brain,
Histeria!,
Batman: The Animated Series,
Freakazoid! (for which he brought in
Paul Rugg and
John P. McCann as writers/producers) all on The WB, and
Road Rovers.
Ruegger has received fourteen
Emmy Awards for his work in animation.
In 2004, Ruegger started Tom Ruegger Production, a full-service animation studio. In 2006, Ruegger began developing, story-editing and serving as Executive Producer on the 40-episode animated series
Animalia (2007), based on the picture book by
Graeme Base. Along with Nicholas Hollander, he developed and story-edited another animated series entitled
Sushi Pack (2007).